Team Operating Processes, Problem Solving and Decision Making

This class was assigned for finalising individual team roles, project plan with tasks and responsible persons, and some general rules to be followed by everyone in the team.

1. That's how the roles look like in our case:

• Team co-ordinator - Me
• Plant - Jenya
• Resource investigators - Kitty & Michel
• Complete Finisher - Arina

The reason for having two RIs is the value and importance of its characteristics for our project. Right now we have almost 15 ready photos which we collected from other students and our own archives, but we still need more than 45 photos for our display. The way we are going to get those needed pictures is through taking the photos by ourselves during 30-minutes breaks in IBS. And here, Kitty's and Michel's connections and relationships are on hand as they are both going to communicate and attract more international students for our shooting. (Resource Investigator - curious, interested, outgoing, likes exploration, information, meeting new people, etc.)

I was chosen as a team co-ordinator unanimously through simple voting. I just guess that's because I became the centre of the information flow among the members, they know I'm always in class and they might feel that I can be trusted and relied on.

We've chose Jenya as a Plant, because he is creative and inventive. He is good at holding the 'big picture', and at the same time, he is quite attentive to small details and questions, which others sometimes forget or just don't pay enough attention to. So he is a good counterpart of me, he interrupts me when it's needed and makes good suggestions.

And Arina is assigned as the Complete Finisher as I feel she is good at making a judgement. Plus, she is steady, reliable and organised, though sometimes needs to be guided. I think she can get things done once she has a clear task in mind.

2. The project plan includes:

• Ask IBS for donation of white A4 papers (70 sheets)- Kitty (R), Meerim (I)
• Take photos of students (around 100 shots)- Meerim (R), Kitty (A), Michel (A)
• Choose & Edit photos - Meerim (R), Arina (A), Jenya (C)
• Find a double-side tape - Kitty (R), Jenya (A), Meerim (I)
• Print photos (61 pieces) - Kitty (R), Meerim (I)
• Decoration of Frames (61 pieces) - Arina (R), Everyone else (A)
• Collect necessary tools (color pencils, markers, color papers, decorative ribbons, beads, stickers, etc.) - Meerim(R)(or does smn want to volunteer?) Everyone else (A)
• Implementation (hanging frames and photos up on walls) - Arina (R), Everyone else (A)

3. And general rules we set are:

• Keep contact & be available
• Follow messages on Facebook regularly
• Take responsibility for your actions and decisions
• Be always on time for a meeting
• Be willing to work individually and in a team
• Be patient and tolerant towards others in the team
• Keep being attentive and interested in the project until the end
• Follow deadlines
• And try to invest as much of your time and will for the common goals and aims as you can.

I feel we made a great job putting this all together. It's good that we had this discussion with my group in class, because we don't meet much outside of the class, and these questions are important to go through. I would have done it anyway though even if we didn't have the class for it, I know. But this way we managed to decide upon the roles and rules, etc. as a team, it wasn't me dictating and assigning everyone for tasks and roles. Decisions came up easily, I was just co-ordinating, raising the question and showing the path. We brainstormed a little bit about the list of tasks, then everyone was free to choose what he/she wants to do for the project. Some of the tasks were not picked immediately, so I had to ask everyone again if anybody would like to volunteer. Fortunately, it worked. People feel more enthusiastic now, when we have a clearer picture of what we are doing and how, and who is responsible for what. Great job!

Belbin Self-Perception Inventory

Though last time I evaluated myself giving 50% for Co-ordinator, 20% for Shaper and 30% for Implementer, after the test we had in today's class, I found that I'm much closer to the Implementer (84% out of 100%), the second highest score is given to the Complete Finisher (around 70%), though I think these two are quite similar in their functions and characteristics, so can be counted as one.

All the rest (Shaper, Team-worker, Resource investigator, Chairman or co-ordinator, Plant and Monitor Evaluator) got average rates (between 33 to 65%). It seems like I can adopt to any of these roles depending on the situation and environment.

Well, for me both estimations are correct in their own way. My guess was done according to our current situation in team, I feel myself as a Co-ordinator at the moment. The description given in an article (Team Role Analysis) seems relevant for me, for my role in the team. As I've said before, I'm not pushing around everyone, but instead trying to listen and understand others to get a picture of what tasks I can assign to each one. And I feel myself the only Motivator. Yes, I wrote before that I'd like to develop this skill in future, but it seems like I don't have an option and have to act now. So I'm taking the responsibility, motivating myself and trying to motivate others. What I did for motivating others?

First of all, I made sure we are all connected (through e-mails and facebook) to make our communication flow easier.

Then, facebook gives an opportunity to create groups (so that's what I did), again connected everyone, but now for the information (documents, files, tasks, dates) to be in one place available any time, any place.

This, I believe, will help other members of my group feel more "secure", being aware of issues going on, being able to comment on any question, etc.

Through this "security", I hope, I can achieve my goal, which is to get everyone Motivated ASAP otherwise I'll loose my patience in the end.

Reflective aid

1) How do I sabotage my team?

Out of the list we draw today in a seminar, I would choose the Dominance for I feel I'm falling into that. I guess the reason is simple, nobody really cares much about the project, but I just wouldn't like to fail the course simply because of that. So I'm really trying to push that project forward, is it counted as being dominant? I guess, I have to learn how to motivate others as well.

2) Belbin team member profile

There are several types of team personalities in the list we got, such as Implementer, co-ordinator, shaper, plant, resource investigator, monitor-evaluator and team-worker. However, I think, it's hard to choose only one of those. People are different, and we all accept that, then it's obvious that we cannot group people just like that. In my own opinion, there has to be a test that shows this and that results in percentage rate. For example, for me I'd say that co-ordinator suits me 50%, plant 20% and implementer 30%. But of course, this rate depends on the situation, on group, on task, on time, etc.

The three 'types' I would most want on my team are Resource investigator, Plant and Implementer. Reasons: Resource investigator - outgoing, sociable, we need him for drawing in more students to participate; Plant - creative, idea-man, needed for giving interesting ideas and solutions; Implementer - steady, reliable, gets things done, a well-disciplined, organised member of the group to count on.

Shapers are usually to impatient, that's why I prefer not dealing with them. Monitor-evaluator can be replaced by others in our team (by co-ordinator, for example) and team-worker is not needed here at all, 'cause so far we get along well, I think, it won't change radically.

Vision and Goals

It seems like other people from our Team decided to skip this class, 'cause I see only 3 of us left now. This will certainly give some affect to the team organisation and quality of the final project. From one side, the less people we have involved, the more tasks each one gets then. But from the other side, this means that it will be much easier to co-ordinate and co-operate with each other. A faster decision-making process, concentration of tasks in just 3 hands keeps things clearer and easier to control and to evaluate after all. Besides, I don't want to be heard as a feminist or so, but, since we are only girls now, discussion and analyse processes have lost their harshness and fervidity. That might also be a negative affect actually for discussions have to be hot, this helps finding out staff we didn't think about, look at the situation from different perspectives and have a whole bunch of suggestions and views. And from those opinions we could then choose the best one. Nevertheless, I think 3 girls will be able to solve that problem in the end anyway, 'cause we are smart ones. :) ... hopefully!

Mission, Vision and Goals

Today we had an interesting seminar, although I knew that staff already from previous years at IBS. But the way the topic was presented was very interactive and entertaining. Sugar cubes were given out to our teams, and different tasks were assigned every 10 minutes. They were both challenging and interesting enough, I guess, for every group. Of course, tasks were not simple, they encouraged team members to think and discuss. And my group did not have any problems with that. We perfectly could manage everything without any disagreements. One of the obvious reasons was the number of team members this time: we were only 3; and the communication was much faster than in other teams. Another thing I've noticed this day was my personal involvement in the team-work. Last seminar was the first one for me, and I knew no one from this class; so even though I've tried to interact with others, I was pulling myself a little bit back. That's because when I am suddenly put into a new environment, I try first to look around, listen, understand and only then start contributing and discussing things. So, today I could say that I felt much more comfortable and relaxed in comparison to the last class. That might be a reason behind my immense creativity during the team-work today. :))